Greetings everyone. Let me start by once again saying a heartfelt thank you to everyone that reviewed the story or dropped me a line since I last updated. It makes me happy to know that there are people who actually look forward to my story updates! And I'm pleased to know that genuine tennis fans appreciate that I'm trying to pay attention to detail and get my facts about the sport right. As some readers have pointed out, I use names of real tennis players every so often, and I hope you don't mind that I bend their ages and career trajectories to suit my story. Let's just call it creative liberty.
Without much further ado, here's the next chapter. I look forward to my next lot of reviews :)
'So this is what prime time looks like' Rachel thought, lobbing another ball high for her opponent to easily smash back to her end of the court. People were still making their way to their seats, chatting to one another as they navigated their way across the brightly lit Stadium Court. The smell of food, the flashing of cameras and the sound of people's voices filled the air. Rachel glanced at her box as she lobbed another ball high, and spotted her Papa taking a big bite out of a hot dog. Beside him her Daddy saw her looking their way, and smiled at his daughter. The brunette briefly wondered where Shelby had disappeared to, before turning her attention back to the other side of the court, where Quinn Fabray had stepped closer to the net so that Rachel could now have the opportunity to practice her overhead smashes.
The younger player took a few steps back, indicating that she was ready. Quinn sent the first lob her way, gently bouncing in place as she waited for Rachel to hit the ball. Rachel looked up, momentarily distracted by the brightness of the floodlights before she sent a clean smash back to Quinn. They continued the back and forth for a minute or so before the umpire announced that play would begin in one minute. Rachel hit one more smash, then nodded to her opponent before making her way to her seat.
Rachel was taking a swig from her drink bottle when she spotted Shelby. Her coach was standing next to Quinn's box, talking to Sue Sylvester. The two women shared a laugh before parting ways. Shelby glanced at Rachel as she made her way back to her charge's fathers, and mouthed a quick 'C'mon' that was accompanied by a fist pump when she realised that Rachel was looking at her. The corners of the brunette's lips turned up in a smile, and she took another sip of her drink. She looked back at Quinn's box, her heart picking up speed when she realised that Emma Pillsbury had taken a seat between Sue and Quinn's father, Russell Fabray. Rachel turned her head, curious to see what her opponent was doing. The blonde was staring straight ahead, her eyes seemingly focused on a faraway spot that wasn't visible to anyone in the actual arena.
"Time", said the chair umpire.
Rachel rose and walked to her end of the court, crossing paths with Quinn as she did. A ball kid bounced a ball her way, Rachel nodding her head at him till she was holding three balls in her palm. She tossed one ball back to the boy, tucked the second into the compression shorts under her dress and turned to serve the first ball of the match. She showed Quinn the ball in her hand, and received the briefest of nods in acknowledgment. Rachel bounced the ball, taking a deep breath before tossing it up in the air and sending a flat serve down the T. Quinn chipped a backhand back her way, which Rachel returned with an aggressive forehand that she followed to the net. Quinn just managed to get her forehand to the ball, and Rachel easily put away her weak return. The audience applauded her play as she made her way back to the service line.
The umpire waited for the applause to die down, before stating "Fifteen, love."
Rachel bounced the ball, discreetly changing her grip to an Eastern backhand grip as she did. The brunette sent a top spin serve to Quinn's backhand, pleased when her opponent read the serve wrong and hit her return into the net.
The brunette wiped the sweat off her brow with her wristband, watching Quinn ready herself to receive on the other side of the court. The world's top-ranked player looked unfazed at having lost the first two points of the match, and bounced up to return the kick serve that Rachel sent her way next. Her forehand came rushing down the line, and Rachel barely had a second to respond before the ball had zoomed past her.
The audience roared at the shot, and the umpire waited for the noise to die down before stating, "Thirty, fifteen."
A breeze passed through Stadium Court as Rachel bounced the ball. The brunette barely noticed the slight goosebumps on her throwing arm as she tossed the ball air, but couldn't miss the satisfaction that coursed through her veins the minute her racket connected with the airborne ball. She noticed with some glee that Quinn wasn't expecting the wide ace that zipped past her at 107 mph. The blonde looked up at Rachel, and the brunette could swear she saw the slightest hint of surprise in her eyes before she crossed over to receive the next serve.
"Forty, fifteen", said the umpire.
Rachel opted to send Quinn a slice serve this time, and a brief rally later she found herself volleying a backhand winner across the court.
"Game, Berry. Berry leads one game to love" the umpire said.
Rachel took a quick sip of her drink before starting to cross to the other side of the court. She realised that Quinn was also about to cross over, and before she could stop to think about it, Quinn had halted in her tracks to let Rachel pass. The brunette muttered a quick thank you to the blonde, and passed her towel to the ball kid on this end of the court before getting in position to return serve.
Rachel and Shelby had once again spent hours preparing for this match, and knew that Quinn Fabray's serve was one of her biggest strengths. It wasn't the fastest serve in the world, but it wasn't close to being the slowest either. Quinn's excellent service placement helped make it one of the best known weapons in women's tennis today, and her second serve wasn't anything to laugh at either. The statistics sheet that Shelby and Rachel had studied the previous night showed that Quinn Fabray had won eighty-nine percent of her service games last year. If that wasn't an intimidating statistic, nothing was.
Rachel tried not to think about how good Quinn's service game was as the blonde tossed the ball in the air. She would have to wait to receive her first serve from the top-seed though, because the blonde caught the ball in her hand again.
"Sorry", Quinn called out.
Rachel nodded her head, crouching down again as Quinn bounced the ball. 'I guess I'm not the only one bothered by the wind' she thought, as Quinn tossed the ball in the air. The next thing she knew, the ball had zoomed down the T and past her backhand side.
"Fifteen, love", said the umpire.
Rachel tried not to let her awe at the serve show as she glanced at serve speed. '114 mph', Rachel thought incredulously, 'My reflexes are going to need to be switched on tonight.'
Forty minutes later, the score was locked at six games all. Neither woman had relinquished her serve, although Quinn had had three break point opportunities. Rachel had fought each one off with good, solid shots, refusing to play defensive tennis even when her back was against the wall. The brunette had even won over the crowd with her never-say-die attitude, and the Indian Wells audience was now equally vocal in it's support for both American's.
Rachel won the first point of the tiebreaker, and watched as Quinn selected a ball to serve with. So far the brunette hadn't been able to crack the Fabray serve, and the best she'd done was to get to thirty-all in Quinn's fifth service game, aided by Quinn's one and only double fault of the night. Rachel knew she would have to change that if she wanted to win this set and then this match, but she found herself wondering how she was supposed to do that when Quinn smashed another ace past her. Rachel sent a frustrated look to her box, only to be met with Shelby's determined face nodding vigorously back at her. The brunette knew what that meant. She was doing the right thing and needed to stay focused and positive.
The two women continued to hold their serves, till Rachel served at four-all in the tiebreaker. The brunette sent a flat serve down the T, and was convinced she had served a winner till she heard the linesman call it out. Rachel immediately raised her hand to challenge the call, but as the screen showed moments later, her serve was wide by a distance of two millimetres. The audience laughed out loud in disbelief, gasping as one before the umpire requested them to quieten down as Rachel prepared to send Quinn her second serve. The brunette realised that Quinn was standing inside the baseline for this one, and sent a wide kick serve to the other side of the court. Quinn whacked a service return that caught the tape on the net, and fell traitorously on Rachel's side of the court. The audience's groan matched the exasperated sound in Rachel's head and Quinn lifted her hand in apology, but that didn't change the fact that the blonde now had the mini break. Two points later, Rachel sipped her drink as she stared at the scoreboard, lamenting how tennis really was a game of millimetres and net cords.
Rachel's frustration at losing the first set followed her into the start of the second, where her lack of focus proved to be her undoing in the first game. Three poor serves and a perfectly placed drop shot from Quinn led to the first service break of the match. Rachel mentally berated herself at the change of ends, and told herself to snap out of it. The advice to herself worked and Rachel lifted her game from then on, but as it turned out, the one break of serve was enough for Quinn to win the set 6-4.
The two players met at the net after the match, and Quinn shook Rachel's hand with a firm grip. "Well played Rachel", Quinn said.
"You too. Obviously" Rachel replied, with a self-depracating smile.
Quinn gave her a kind smile in return, "I expect I'll be seeing a lot more of you on tour. Good luck." And with that, the two women parted ways.
In the days to come Rachel would realise that there was much to be proud of in how she'd played that night. She would understand that she needed to control her emotions better, that she couldn't dwell on points that had already been played and she definitely couldn't let errors in her game fog her focus, judgment and clarity of thought. She would learn all that and more. But as Rachel stepped off the court and into the corridor, it was easy to ignore the appreciative applause of the crowd as her shoulder's slumped with disappointment.
